Country blues, bottleneck and finger-busting guitar, offered up with powerful voice, deep soul and wry humor

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Lessons available on various instruments in multiple genres near Providence, in Jamaica Plain, online, and at the Music Emporium!

Endorsements and Gear

Martin endorses these fine instruments and accessories:

Fairbanks GuitarsDale Fairbanks is an amazing luthier and a fine craftsman; he’s figured out the secret of building brand-new, 80-year-old Gibson guitars. The F-35 I play is a structural copy of a 1937 J-35 that belonged to Paul Geremia, a long-time hero and friend. It has become my go-to guitar in recent years, and that’s saying a lot. Dale also builds remarkable Stella- and Bruno-style 12-string guitars. I wish I could ask him to build me a guitar every year.

Diamond BottlenecksI’ve cut my own bottlenecks for over 40 years, and I’d still be doing so if I hadn’t run into Ian McWee at Euroblues 2015 in England. Ian and his cohorts at Diamond produce the finest bottlenecks I’ve ever seen; their slides are the right weight and have the right feel and sound. They bring the best out of every guitar I’ve tried them on. The other production slides I’ve tried can’t hold a candle to them.

Eastman GuitarsI’ve performed and taught with an Eastman SS-10 for significant amounts of time over the last five years. The SS-10, a slope-shouldered, Adirondack-topped mahogany dreadnaught, is a wicked good guitar. It has all the depth and soul a dread of this type should have. It’s reliable, it sounds great, and it’s a joy to play.

Elixir StringsI use Elixir strings on my acoustic and electric guitars, resonator guitars and mandolins. They sound wonderful from the moment they go on the instrument, and they keep sounding good way longer than other strings. I haven’t found any I like better, and I haven’t found an instrument they don’t improve.